1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing a photographic sensitive material such that a photographic sensitive material for taking pictures is processed by a processing liquid.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, the state of a processing liquid for use in an apparatus for processing a photographic sensitive material has generally been managed by a control strip process. The control strip process is a process having the steps of subjecting, to a development process, a photographic sensitive material (a control strip) exposed to light under standard exposure conditions consisting of a predetermined light intensity, a predetermined exposure period and a predetermined light quality; measuring the density of the developed control strip with a density meter; and checking the state of the processing liquid in accordance with the result of measurement. The foregoing operation is a troublesome operation for a user, and the necessity of using the density meter results in an economical burden being imposed excessively. Thus, improvements have been required.
In view of the foregoing, there has been disclosed a film developing apparatus (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 6-230543), comprising a reference exposing portion for exposing a photosensitive material under the foregoing reference exposing conditions in order to obtain control strips and a density meter for measuring the density of the control strips exposed in the reference exposing portion and developed in a developing portion, wherein states of processing solutions are calculated in accordance with a result of measurement performed by the density meter to display the calculated states of the processing solutions on a display portion thereof. A photography printing and developing apparatus (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 6-236018) has been suggested in which an exposing portion exposes the photosensitive material with light under the foregoing reference exposing conditions, the density of the photosensitive material subjected to the reference exposure and developed in the developing portion is measured with a density meter, and states of processing solutions are calculated in accordance with a result of the measurement so as to display the calculated states of the processing solutions on a display portion.
However, the foregoing film developing apparatus and the photography printing and developing apparatus are able to simply detect defects of the photographic characteristics. Since the cause of the defect cannot be detected, there is a risk that an erroneous process control is performed.